The Hunter

[Sorkenlol]

Does anyone play this game? It was just released to the public a few days ago, I was in the closed beta, it's fun as hell. The game is a hunting simulator, and it's very realistic in many ways, the AI for the animals is great and lifelike, and the environment and sounds are very immersive. How you want to play the game and what goals you set are up to you. There are small side missions to help you get on the right track, where a person asks you if you can kill a large buck or spot a few animals, you'll complete these missions when you hunt, so there's no pressure or anything, eventually you'll get that buck, or spot that animal. There's also a ranking system (I'm nr 13! ) that you can advance in by killing big bucks or shooting a deer from a great distance.

There are 3 different animals in the game at the moment, the Mule Deer which is the most common animal and easiest to track and kill, the Whitetail, which is a slightly larger deer (I think, never seen one) and turkeys. There will soon be Elk aswell.

The game is free to play, but there's additional equipment and features to be unlocked by paying a small monthly fee. The equipment and features are guns, clothes, accessories and animals. With the free version you can only hunt Mule Deer and you get your basic equipment, binoculars, a bleat caller, a rifle with a 4x 32mm scope and unlimited ammo, hunting clothes and the HunterMate, which is a small GPS like tool that shows you the map and registers sounds and track. The game will also become Online at one point in the near future, right now it's in an open beta.

The game is pretty hard to master, and requires great patience. The deer is very good at camoflauging itself, so you'll really have to keep an eye out. The hardest thing is to get them in a clear line of sight, there are several begginer guides on their forum though. You can track the animals by following their footsteps, their poo or by sounds. All of these will give you a fairly accurate position where the deer is or is headed. The footsteps gives you a reverse arrow on your huntermate which gets wider and wider the further away it is from the track, the length of the arrow depends on how fresh it is. The poo gives you a radius on the huntermate, the radius can be big (dotted when biggest) or small, it all depends on how fresh it is. The sounds gives you a small indicator on your huntermate that shows you a fairly accurate location of the animal when the sound was registered, it's not spot on, so be careful and keep an eye out all the time.

I forgot to mention, there's 3 stages of tracks, if you find one track, you'll get one "point" on your hutnermate, if you find another track from the same animal, you'll get 2 points, and then finally 3, with every point, the tracks get more accurate on your huntermate.

Download and register here: www.thehunter.com

Here are some of my own pictures:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Neb]

Wow. I'm never going to play it myself, but that looks really good.

-Neb

[Thanatos]

No offense or anything, but if I wanted to hunt, I'd just... go hunting.

In fact, I'm feeling an urge to do that. *thinks of his Nagant and his Mossberg*

[The Dude]

Is that CryEngine 2? o_o

Better someone hunts on his PC than goes outside to actually murder animals for his own amusement.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

Sorkenlol, my man, that's a great find!! +Rep for that! It's freaking beautiful, hope my rig can run it.
@Thanatos: I'd prefer the real thing to, but there's the off season when this would be fun to play, and for some game in my area you have to put your name in a lottery to get the hunting ticket.
Hope it's realistic.
@Dude: Get informed before you fart out comments. The first and strongest conservationsits were hunters. Read out about carrying capacity, eco systems and hunting regulations and synopsis before you go making a broad generalization.

[Rapax]

I think America is the only country where the "hunting simulator" has become a viable gaming niche.

[The Dude]

@Dude: Get informed before you fart out comments. The first and strongest conservationsits were hunters. Read out about carrying capacity, eco systems and hunting regulations and synopsis before you go making a broad generalization.

I understand this very well actually. The necessity of hunting and the good it does to maintain a natural balance is obvious. I was just rather irked by Thanatos' comment of "In fact, I'm feeling an urge to do that. *thinks of his Nagant and his Mossberg*".

You won't hear me argue against hunting in general, but people going out killing animals just for personal entertainment is something I have a hard time accepting. Anyway this is the CM and not the EMM so I don't really wanna get too deep into the morality of the hunt.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

I understand this very well actually. The necessity of hunting and the good it does to maintain a natural balance is obvious. I was just rather irked by Thanatos' comment of "In fact, I'm feeling an urge to do that. *thinks of his Nagant and his Mossberg*".

You won't hear me argue against hunting in general, but people going out killing animals just for personal entertainment is something I have a hard time accepting. Anyway this is the CM and not the EMM so I don't really wanna get too deep into the morality of the hunt.

Even if one is hunting for food, and hunting responsbily, there is still pleasure in the hunt. It's intrinsic within us. Hunting requires skill, patience, endurance, strength, woodcraft and survival skills. There's nothing wrong at all with Thanatos wanting to get out and hunt. As a side note, anyone who is not a vegitarian has no right to decry a hunter. We earn our food while the majority drive to the store and purchase a slab of processed meat wrapped in celophane, from a beast that has lived an absolutely horrid existance, while being pumped full of hormones.
On tail of all this, I'm actually glad the majority of the earth's population no longer hunt, or we'd have thousands of numpties crashing through the bush, killing everything and each other, ruining the balance of carrying capacity and ecosystems and generally making the natural world into another version of the f--- up cities they all teem in. But I digress.

Oh, well if it's Canada too, then that totally s up my argument of course.

Of course it does, considering Canada's and the US's combined land mass is enormous, and we've been hunting the land for generations and each year do the same, while Europe's and Asia's big game is all but died off for no regard to carrying capacity and the fairly modern concepts of bag limits and such. You're arguement also leads into the other debates of firearms and man's right to defend himself and provide for himself, something most Europeans are content to let the State do for them.

[Rapax]

Of course it does, considering Canada's and the US's combined land mass is enormous, and we've been hunting the land for generations and each year do the same, while Europe's and Asia's big game is all but died off for no regard to carrying capacity and the fairly modern concepts of bag limits and such. You're arguement also leads into the other debates of firearms and man's right to defend himself and provide for himself, something most Europeans are content to let the State do for them.

Seems you have unresolved issues you're carrying into this. Not with me though, thank you.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

You're unresolved issue is making glib statements about the States involving gun ownership and hunting.
You're like the mayor from the movie "Chocolate". I know you want to shoot, and hunt, and your'e trying to repress it.

[Renegen]

Kill pixels, not animals.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

Commie pussies
..............
@Rapax: You think wrong. Hunting and shooting is immensly popular in Canada as well.
@Renegen: These statements don't make any sense.

[Rapax]

@Rapax: You think wrong. Hunting and shooting is immensly popular in Canada as well.

Oh, well if it's Canada too, then that totally s up my argument of course.

[Celsius]

No offense or anything, but if I wanted to hunt, I'd just... go hunting.

For Reals

[Thanatos]

Relax, dude, that's not what I meant.

I do enjoy hunting, but you'll never see me getting some sort of sick twisted pleasure out of making some animal get hurt. I've always been a big proponent of simple hunting, to kill the animal with the least amount of pain as possible withing the realm of hunting, and then eating it.

A waster I am not.

[The Dude]

Fair enough mate. Apologies for the rushed conclusions. When it comes to animal rights I tend to get a bit obsessed. Sometimes I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

[John-117]

wow. thats extremely photo-realistic, like cod 4 quality at worst. i will definitely play.

[Cyrus the Virus]

The first time I heard of this game, I thought the whole idea was funny and weird.
Who knows, it might succeed anyway.
It something out of the ordinary.

[Cougar109]

Some crazy graphics there for a very niche game that may never catch on.

[Dayman]

Looks interesting, I'll definitely give it a download.

On tail of all this, I'm actually glad the majority of the earth's population no longer hunt, or we'd have thousands of numpties crashing through the bush, killing everything and each other, ruining the balance of carrying capacity and ecosystems and generally making the natural world into another version of the f--- up cities they all teem in. But I digress.

Sounds like someone doesn't like cities . To be off topic for a second, I have a contradictory nature that will be a to deal with as I get older - on one hand I love nature, its beauty and solitude, yet I am also a social creature and love living in the city. :/